1. Field of the Invention
In missile tracker systems, the operator views the target in the visible spectrum while the tracker portion of the system tracks the missile in the shorter wavelength of the infrared. The tracker system utilizes a forward looking infrared tracker which tracks a distinctive IR beacon or other source of energy mounted on the tail of the missile while the operator sights a reticle in the field of view on the target through a separate sighting arrangement. Error signals are then generated and transmitted to the missile such as through a wire or through space and the missile is guided onto the target such as a ground target. The tracker receives scanned scene information from a line or column of detectors which effectively horizontally scans the field of view or scene by a scanning mirror, and produce signals which represent the scene imagery. The display to the operator is then formed by a column of light emitting diodes responding to the detector signals and being effectively scanned by the scene scanning mirror. Thus, the operator views the target through the same sensor that is utilized to automatically track the missile beacon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a typical IR missile tracker system, the infrared detector portion of the system may have a relatively wide field of view but the tracker portion of the system requires that an excessively large number of detectors be used in the detector portion and relatively complex processing be used in the tracker portion in order to provide a high resolution over the entire field of view. Thus, conventional systems utilize a wide field of view mode for acquisition of the missile with a low resolution and a narrow field of view mode for tracking of the missle. A two field of view system has the disadvantages that only one field can be viewed at a time and that the dead time when switching fields of view is undesirble. A system that utilizes a minimum number of detectors and processinng and that provides a single field of view having both wide field of view characteristics for acquisition and high resolution characteristics for tracking would be a substantial advance in the art.